Zao Wou-Ki

Biography

Zao Wou-Ki, born in Beijing in 1920, arrived in Paris in 1948. He adapted to the aesthetic upheavals of his time, and became one of the great masters of lyrical abstraction. Painting, poetry, literature and music have always played an important part in his creative process: he is in constant dialogue with his friends, including Henri Michaux, Yahne Le Toumelin, Edgar Varèse, Pierre Soulages, François Cheng, René Char, Claude Roy, Alberto Giacometti, Bernard Noël, Pierre Matisse, André Malraux and the architect Leoh Ming Pei.